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University of Cola Sciences
History Pre-War UCS got its start as USC, the University of South Carolina. The university was founded by an act of the South Carolina General Assembly in 1801. Initially consisting of a single building, the university grew, and by the time the American Civil War arrived, South Carolina College as it was then known as was one of the leading scholarly institutions in the South. During the conflict, the institution’s student body dropped due to Confederate conscription to the point that the college had to be temporarily closed. Taken possession of by the Confederate government, the campus was turned into a hospital for the remainder of the war. In May 1865, General Sherman’s Union forces took possession of the city and the school was reopened shortly thereafter, this time as the University of South Carolina. Following its reopening, the school began expanding as normalcy returned to South Carolina. Expanding from The Horseshoe, a ring of eleven buildings that comprised the school before the war, the campus spread out dramatically. This continued through the 20th century, and by the time the 2000s arrived, USC comprised over 350 acres of land, and was attended by roughly 34,000 students. It blossomed into a prestigious institution at the forefront of academics, research, and sports, with an endowment of nearly $1 billion dollars. In March 2052, the New Plague ravaged the country and USC was not immune. The rest of the Spring 2052 semester was cancelled, as was the Fall 2052 semester. The epidemic put in motion a series of events that the university would not be able to recover from. The cancelled semesters cost the school tens of millions of dollars. The national quarantine that was declared meant that hundreds of international students would not be able to attend, representing another loss of income. The deaths of multiple students attending the school resulted in lawsuits that the school lost. USC began selling off assets to pay of their outstanding debts, but by the end of the decade, it became apparent that the school would not be able to stay financially solvent. In 2063, Nuka Cola Corporation purchased the remaining land and buildings that the ailing college owned. Rebranded the University of Cola Sciences, the small campus and handful of buildings became a research and testing laboratory for Nuka Cola. While much of the day-to-day activity there was benign and directly business related- chemists experimented with new and different flavor combinations, marketers explored research to develop the best strategies to reach customers and expand the company- UCS had a darker side as well. The cloning and genetic mutation technology that was utilized at Nuka-World’s Safari Adventure park was partially developed and utilized at the University of Cola Sciences. It was in these secret facilities closed off to the public that scientists created Cola Flies, genetically mutated fireflies that would glow different colors in the presence of Nuka Cola. The Nuka Cola Corporation appointed Peter Harmon, a young, ruthless executive to run the complex. From 2062 until the morning of October 23, 2077, he treated the men and women of the campus like his personal playthings. He would casually threaten, fine, or fire workers who looked at him the wrong way. He was abusive- sometimes even physically- to his immediate underlings. Though married, he flirted with female employees, never taking no for an answer. The only individuals Harmon begrudgingly respected were the Nuka Cola-employed scientists working on secret projects, as their research was an arcane language he could not understand. Post-War Category:South Carolina